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I Traveled to South Africa
Limpopo Province - At home care worker visits little boy with skin disease.
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I Traveled to
South Africa
by Phylicia Kirk
Have you ever traveled somewhere for the first
time and yet it felt like you were at home? Just as Jewish people must make their pilgrimage to Israel, it seems almost an unwritten rule that every black person must journey to Africa at least once in their life. I found that the opportunity was presented to me through the guise of study abroad. In the summer of 2018 I traveled to South Africa, part of what everyone likes to refer to as, The Motherland, to study zoonotic diseases and the One Health Initiative. For those not in the health field, zoonotic diseases are those that affect both humans and animals. Within South Africa, this included rabies, tuberculosis, foot-and-mouth disease, and malaria. The principle of One Health is the idea that humans, animals, and the environment play a role in health care in that health practitioners, when treating a disease affecting one, must consider the influences of the other two. We also studied several communicable diseases, those transmissible by direct contact with an affected individual or the individual’s discharges, including HIV/AIDS and listeriosis. Although the program itself was very rigorous, my experience was not without historical lessons, breathtaking sights, and unforgettable memories.
Being in South Africa was my first time being outside the country and being in its presence brought upon me a subtle, serene feeling. Immediately after landing, I waited in the airport for the bus transportation and many of the men working there referred to me as “sister”, making sure that I was okay as I had been traveling alone. There were women who came and sat by me in the waiting area, speaking their native tongue to me initially mistaking me for someone returning home. In some ways, I did feel as though that were true. The land spoke to me, the mountains called down to me, the people welcomed me, all without words.
We started our journey in Johannesburg, visiting the Apartheid museum. The 11 of us young women on the trip followed behind our fearless leader, Dr. Aileen Marty, meticulously taking notes over every inch of each room we were in as though it were a crime scene. Any time she looked or pointed in the direction of anything, whether it was a panel of information or a spec of dust, camera flashes and furious scribbling followed. The museum had a strict “no photos” policy so pictures had to be taken quickly and cleverly. The average time it would take a person to walk through the museum, properly reading and observing everything would be about 4-5 hours. We had 2. We resembled cattle being herded by their farmer, stragglers being hurried along with a “Hey! This way!” or a “Come on, we’re moving on!”. The rigorous notetaking was not for fun, the promise of a quiz at the end of the day over any and everything we did or saw loomed in the back of our heads. This was to be of a daily
occurrence and with the rate at which we were running through the museum I was worried how well I would retain information for the rest of the trip. Eventually we concluded our expedited tour and took a break for lunch before heading to Constitution Hill. The first day set the tone for the intensity of the program, something I had already been promised but hardly believed until I was able to experience it for myself. The challenge of daily quizzes over information learned after being out at various new places for 8-9 hours during the day whipped my mind
Visiting Sanroman (South African Witch Doctor)
and memory into shape. After the conclusion of our adventures for the day we had roughly two hours to utilize for studying, however half of that time was typically used for short mental breaks, eating, and showering. Together my classmates and I would huddle together and rapid fire questions from each of our notes, collectively covering the events of the day. It is funny the special bond of comradery that forms between people when you’re in a completely different continent than home and only know each other.
The thought of spending 22 days living in close quarters in a foreign country with 10 other women sounds like the set up for the next hit reality TV show. However, throughout the experience there was never any drama or feuds among us and we really helped keep each other from being homesick or discouraged. Half of our group even became sick during our trip, with one student having
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to even stay back on some days while we went out for our daily explorative lessons. Through the nursing of each other to close encounters with wild animals, we all developed a true friendship, eventually naming ourselves “Impala Sisters” after the many we had encountered while staying in Kruger National Park. The most rewarding part of sharing the experience was being able to share it with another black girl. I had enrolled in the course fully prepared to be, once again, the only “melanated”
Exploring cave in the Cradle of Humankind
individual in the bunch. To my surprise, there was one other black girl who I had known from around campus who had been accepted into the program as well. Together we relished the small things, such as comparing the social scene to that of Black America’s or being in awe over mannequins in the mall having afros and braids; hair that looked like ours. It is difficult to describe an experience like that and I was happy to have someone there who was able to appreciate the experience beyond an academic and global aspect.
One of the most memorable parts of the entire trip was our excursion to Swaziland, now known as Eswatini. Besides staying in Kruger National Park, this was the most rural part of our journey which made it surprising to me, a suburban girl from Texas now living in Miami, that I enjoyed it as much as I did. The area was breathtakingly beautiful, almost like something out of a movie. There were wild zebras, warthogs, and wildebeest that roamed near our campgrounds. I had never seen the Earth in such natural beauty; it was while staying there that I felt most spiritually connected to land. While there we visited the only optometrist in the entire country and toured his facility. He was in the process of expansion and spoke to
us about how even with the expansion of his office there was still a deficit in the amount of patients he could treat. As an aspirant of the Doctors Without Borders program, this visit added fuel to the fire I have in my heart to travel and help others globally. Unfortunately, the truly most memorable part of the entire trip was one of heartbreak and helplessness.
During out time in the Limpopo province of South Africa, we shadowed at-home care workers in the local village. The workers comprised of mothers, daughters, wives, and other village women who volunteered their time to walk house to house and assist those in need of medical care. Because many of these women were not professionally trained in any medical areas, their help was very limited; assisting families in administering medicines, doing quality of life check ups, and trying their best to diagnose and treat elusive medical conditions. Many of their patients could not afford prolonged treatment in the local hospital and thus relied heavily on their support. The group of women, working out of a building as small as an elementary portable classroom, only received payment when they received grant money from the government but this was not annually guaranteed. At the time of our visit, the group had not yet been granted any funding. Myself and another student were paired with an at-home care worker and began our journey to different houses. Although it was slightly tough to see people in such poor health conditions with little to no medical help that could be provided, there was a glimmer of positivity in the joy you could see in their face just from the visits. Normally, many of these patients spent the majority, if not all of their day cooped up within their family’s home, not speaking to or seeing many new faces. Our last stop was at a house with a little boy who had an enigmatic skin condition. Prior to arriving, the women had explained that the boy had a debilitating skin condition but words could not describe just how
Apartheid Museum
pg. 14
Exploring cave in the Cradle of Humankind
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Optometry Office in Swaziland
pg. 18
extreme the condition had gotten. We were welcomed into the house by the child’s mother who then had her son come out for us to see. Dressed in his pajamas, a little boy no older than 6 years old comes out and shyly sits down on the floor. The skin condition had been seemingly eating away at his skin and his hands looked as though he had recently suffered some burns from falling and skidding on pavement. However, the real horror revealed itself as his mother instructed him to lift up his shirt and pull down his pants. Only then were we able to to witness the level of constant suffering that the child was put through. His stomach, arms, and legs were covered in open sores as big as his palm. Many of the open sores had begun to ooze and caused his cotton pajamas to start sticking to him in those places. Seeing him almost made me burst into tears. I have suffered from a skin condition known as eczema since early childhood. For most people, eczema affects only small patches on their arms or legs but for me it spread across my entire body. The disease causes an irritation of the skin, which can be seen as dark patches on the skin, due to extreme dryness. The itching is insufferable and many a time I would scratch myself to the point of creating open sores all over my body. Seeing the little boy brought me back to the times in my childhood where I would cry myself to sleep because I was so uncomfortable and in pain; pajamas sticking to my open sores. Nevertheless, my experience frailed in comparison to what I saw before me on that little boy. As we looked at old pictures of him before he was afflicted in his pre-school cap and gown, we were told that his condition was so bad that he could no longer attend school and needed to go to a special school for children with disabilities. No local doctor could
Apartheid Museum
figure out what was wrong with his skin and the family did not make nearly enough money to have him seen by any specialists. All that the at-home care worker could do during visits would be to pray over the boy. We soon left the house, hearts heavy and returned to the rest of the workers. Although there was nothing I could have done, the memory of that little boy has stuck with me; his silent suffering haunting me even to this day.
Overall, my trip to the Motherland was unforgettable, full of education, laughs, and unforgettable sights. I would recommend everyone take their own pilgrimage to the land of their ancestors as you may discover things about yourself that you never realized. I hope that one day in the future, I may return to South Africa and be able to serve a grand impact on an ever changing country.
Limpopo Province - At home care worker visits/little boy with the skin disease
Visiting the Sanroman (South African Witch Doctor)
Kruger National Park
Optometry Office in Swaziland
Kruger National Park
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Apartheid Museum————-
I am an adaptable, recent college graduate in Biological Sciences from Florida International University. During the course of my academic career, I have managed to accrue a myriad of experience in the medical field on top of personal development through my studies. I had the privilege of traveling to South Africa with the FIU Honors College Study Abroad program to study zoonotic diseases and the concept of One Health. This trip also included an excursion to Swaziland to shadow the only licensed optometrist in the country. During my final semester at FIU, I worked as a Research Assistant in the FIU Sibley Teen Lab and the Biology Lab, where I learn valuable professional skills such as patient care and safety, data collection, scoring, and analysis. In both my academic and professional life, I have been consistently praised for my positive receptiveness to feedback from superiors by my professors, peers, and past employers. Outside of medical and academic involvements, I volunteer at the FIU student food pantry and also served as the president of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, a Greek council comprised of 9 sororities and fraternities. I have a passion for music, understanding the individual and being active. Currently, I am working as a medical scribe and in the process of applying to medical school in pursuit of ultimately becoming a neurosurgeon.
pg. 20
Kruger National Park
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